Article 1: Law Student Rights and Responsibilities

1.1 Michigan State University is a community of scholars. The basic purposes of the University are the advancement, dissemination, and application of knowledge. While engaged in these activities, the University seeks to provide an environment conducive to instruction, research, and service.

1.2 Each right of an individual places a reciprocal responsibility upon others: the responsibility to permit the individual to exercise the right. The law student, as a member of the academic community, has both rights and responsibilities. Within that community, the law student’s most essential right is the right to learn. The University provides for the law student those privileges, opportunities, and protections that best promote the learning process in all its aspects. The law student has responsibilities to other members of the academic community, the bar, and to clients and the general public.

1.3 Regulations governing the activities and conduct of student groups and individual law students do not attempt to specify all prohibited and permitted conduct. Rather, they are intended to govern conduct that seriously interferes with the basic purposes and processes of the community or with the rights of members of the community.

1.4 The law student is not only a member of the academic community, but also a citizen of the larger society who retains those rights, protections, and guarantees of fair treatment held by all citizens.

1.5 GUIDELINES REGARDING LAW STUDENT REGULATIONS

1.5.1 The College of Law shall not enact student regulations unless there is a demonstrable need for them that is reasonably related to the basic purposes and necessities of the College.

1.5.2 The College of Law shall provide opportunities for law students to participate in formulating and revising regulations governing law student conduct.

1.5.3 All regulations governing law student rights and responsibilities, including both University and College of Law policies, shall be made available to law students in print or in electronic form. The Michigan State University College of Law Student Handbook (http://www.law.msu.edu/students/student-handbook.html) and the Michigan State University College of Law Faculty Handbook are incorporated herein by reference.

1.5.4 The College of Law shall make reasonable efforts to ensure that every regulation is brief, clear, and specific.

1.5.5 Wherever rights conflict, regulations shall, to the maximum extent feasible, permit reasonable scope for each conflicting right by defining the circumstances of time, place, and means appropriate to its exercise.

1.5.6 Regulations shall respect the free expression of ideas and shall encourage the competition of ideas from diverse perspectives.

1.5.7 Penalties shall be commensurate with the seriousness of the offense. Repeated violations may justify increasingly severe penalties.

1.5.8 There shall be clearly defined channels and procedures for the appeal and/or review of:

a. The finding of a violation of a regulation.

b. The reasonableness, under the circumstances, of the penalty imposed for a violation.

c. A regulation or administrative decision that is alleged to be inconsistent with guidelines in this document.

d. Alleged violations of the complaint/grievance procedures set forth in Article V of this document.

1.5.9 Every regulation shall specify to whom it applies and whether responsibility for compliance lies with law students.

1.6 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LSRR AND CODE OF STUDENT DISCIPLINE

1.6.1 As aspiring members of the legal profession generally, and of one or more state bar associations specifically, law students are subject to standards of conduct relating to their character and fitness to engage in the practice of law. The obligation to assess the character and fitness of law students is imposed upon the faculty and administration of the College of Law, and is not appropriately delegated in any manner to non-lawyers.

1.6.2 The Code of Student Discipline (www.law.msu.edu/studentaffairs/handbook/code-discipline.html), subject to Section 1.6.4, provides the exclusive process and standards under which the College of Law will assess, discipline, and report matters going to the character and fitness of a law student to engage in the practice of law.

1.6.2.1 Matters falling within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Code of Student Discipline are those matters listed in Paragraph A.3 of the Code of Student Discipline.

1.6.3 The LSRR describes the rights and responsibilities of law students in all matters not falling under the jurisdiction of the Code of Student Discipline. All matters arising within the jurisdiction of the LSRR are subject to the procedures described in the Academic Hearing Procedures for Michigan State University College of Law (www.law.msu.edu/studentaffairs/handbook/academic_hearing_procedures_for_msu_law.html).

1.6.3.1 Matters arising within the LSRR and decided under the Academic Hearing Procedures for Michigan State University College of Law may be appealed under the procedures of Section 5.7.

1.6.3.2 Matters arising under the Code of Student Discipline and decided under the hearing procedures provided therein may be appealed only pursuant to the procedures described therein.

1.6.4 In appropriate cases, matters arising under the LSRR may be reported to a character and fitness committee (or equivalent) for a state bar if it is determined that those matters implicate the obligation of the College of Law to report matters relating to a law student’s character and fitness to engage in the practice of law to a state bar to which the law student seeks admission.

1.6.5 Determinations Regarding Jurisdiction of the Code of Student Discipline and the LSRR

1.6.5.1 Subject to Section 5.4 and Section 1.6.4, the Associate Dean for Student Engagement or the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs shall make an initial determination whether the matter raises issues going to character and fitness and must be decided under the procedures and standards of the Code of Student Discipline or whether the matter is not within the Code of Student Discipline and therefore must be decided under the procedures and standards of the LSRR and the Academic Hearing Procedures.

1.6.5.2 Any student whose matter is determined to be within the scope of the Code of Student Discipline may appeal that decision to the Dean. In the event the Dean determines that the matter is subject to the Code of Student Discipline, the student may appeal the Dean’s determination that the matter is subject to the Code of Student Discipline to a faculty hearing board organized pursuant to Section 5 of the Code of Student Discipline.